Drive for a set of cards



g- 1958 G. H. c. SCHLESE 2,847,716

' DRIVE FOR A SET OF CARDS Filed Feb. 15, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l Q Rubbing Mafia Tape Candamrcr 5 Jeff/ 1 Gama lei/er Fced infer/newbie E90 luff/n Comb ll'c rer in Mafia Ila per Feeder- Iwfh Bola ce INVENTOP GE /w: S i/axe.

QmQWA 1958 G. H. c. SCHLESE 2,847,716

DRIVE FOR A SET OF CARDS Filed Feb. 15, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. 2

llvrtwroe 'Q17ard 44C sy/exg United States Patent DRIVE FOR A SET OF CARDS Gerhard H. C. Schlese, Bremen-Blumenthal, Germany, assignor to Spinnbau G. in. b. H., Bremen-Farge, Germany Application February 15, 1954, Serial No. 410,398 Claims priority, application Germany February 25, 1953 6 Claims. (CI. 19-98) The present invention relates to a drive for a set of cards. The drive for a set of cards greatly determines the quality of the delivered roving. Similarly the driving elements greatly influence the facility of inspecting the machine aggregates and also influence the safety of operation and the handling and control of the driving elements.

It is known by means of synchronously running individual motors to drive the individual cards of an assortment together with the devices pertaining thereto. The said individual motors then directly drive the swifts or main cylinders which latter through the intervention of various transmissions and as a rule through the intervention of fiat belts drive the various rollers-workers, clearers, fancies, etc.cloffers as well as the individual devices-weighing and feeding devices, lickers-in, intermediate feeds, condensers, feeding means, web squeezers etc.

In order to eliminate the non-uniformities of the roving caused by the non-controllable belt slippage of such driving devices working with numerous individual belts, it has been suggested to arrange a shaft along the set of cards and to drive from the last mentioned shaft the swifts and the feeding and discharging devices together with the individual devices. There are various embodiments of sets of cards with such longitudinal shafts. According to one of these embodiments the shaft is arranged for instance below the floor and extends throughout the entire length of the set of cards. According to another embodiment the longitudinal shaft is arranged above the floor and is sub-divided into a plurality of shaft sections.

The drive of the feeding and discharging devices as Well as of the individual mechanisms is then effected from this shaft through flat belts, chains or gears and occasionally also through various transmissions arranged between these individual mechanisms and the driving shaft. The speed of rotation of the shaft or shafts is either constant or adjustable. The heretofore known driving arrangements especially of the above mentioned type have certain drawbacks the most important one of which will be evident from the following.

If, while a carding process is being carried out, the delivery speed is to be changed while the roving number is to be kept constant (because it is not possible when setting the machine for a new lot, to predetermine the best or maximum delivery speed), the feeding speed has to be changed at the weighing device, and in addition thereto numerous adjustments have to be effected at the feeding and discharging elements as well as at the individual mechanisms.

Not only is it necessary to efiect the adjustment at a plurality of points of the machine but there also exists the danger that an uneven or non-uniform roving is delivered if not the most careful attention is paid during the time during which the material passes from the weighing device to the condenser (twenty to thirty minutes). In addition thereto during this time period a greater quantity of roving waste will accrue. These facts bring about that the operator is not very much inclined to vary the delivery speed, especially during the working of a lot, and consequently the machine is deliberately not adjusted for the best output which may frequently be considerably higher than the actual output being obtained.

Therefore, attempts have been made to overcome this drawback. To this end, for instance with an automatic set of cards, the driving shaft extending throughout the length of the set of cards has been driven by a motor through the swift of the spinning card and a subsequent change gear transmission in order to increase the speed of rotation of this long shaft to thereby. automatically increase the delivery speed.

However, such an arrangement has not proved successful under actual conditions. The main disadvantage of this arrangement consists in that the driving motors are under different load which motors for reasons connected with the spinning technique must not only run synchronously but must also synchronously start and synchronously slow down for stopping. While with a rotating set of cards, two motors merely have to drive a swift and the working rollers pertaining thereto, a third motor has to drive not only the third swift with the working rollers of the latter but has also to drive all individual devices including the condenser, as well as the feeding and discharging mechanisms. Aside from the fact that motors being under different load cannot be started and slowed down synchronously-motors of random load can be synchronized only by means of rather expensive equipment such as motronic (Motronikschaltungen) arrangements in connection with tachodynamos-this assembly also causes additional difficulties. In particular the arrangement of the long shaft below the floor frequently encounters constructional difliculties. Furthermore, an increase in the delivery speed does not produce an increase in the speed of the traversing condenser roller and of the doffer comb. It should also be mentioned that with a failure of the card, such as shortcircuit in view of the different load of the individual motors and different slow-down speeds for stopping (ten to one hundred and twenty seconds) inherent thereto carding difficulties are unavoidable which after restarting the assortment require a precise checking of the roving over a longer period of time (twenty to thirty minutes). Since the dolfer is driven through a long shaft, whereas the swift is driven by a separate motor and thus the slowdown period for stoppage of the said two shafts frequently is very different, disorders at this point are frequently unavoidable.

When arranging the longitudinal shaft above the floor laterally of the machine, a sub-division of the shaft is necessary in order not to have to step over the shaft between the individual devices and the individual cards. While with this arrangement it is possible to cause the individual cards of an assortment to start synchronously and synchronously to slow down for stoppage, it is not possible to alter the delivery speed so that faulty drafts with the drawbacks inherent thereto will be avoided under all circumstances.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a drive for a set of cards, which will overcome the above mentioned drawbacks without sacrificing the advantages of a beltless drive.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved drive for a set of cards which in spite of a plurality of single drive shafts will assure not only a synchronous starting and gradual stopping but also a synchronous change in the delivery of the entire set of cards.

It is still another object of this invention to provide an improved set of cards of the character set forth in the preceding paragraph which will also make it possible synchronously to vary the speed of rotation ofthe trav- 3 ersing condenser roller, of the condenser, as well as of the dofier comb.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear moreclearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a set of two cards. Fig. 2 shows a portion of Fig. l but with additional control means for a change gear transmission directly associated with the swift.

General arrangement The primary feature of the present invention consists in that the feeding means as well as the discharging means of the cards and also the individual devices'pertaining thereto such as weighing and feeding devices, licker-in devices and intermediate feeds, web squeezers, condensers, and the like are driven through a longitudinal shaft which is arranged on one side of the machine and the speed of which is infinitely variable, while infinitely variable transmissions pertaining to a set of cards are synchronously controllable. The individual longitudinal shafts of the cards are preferably driven by synchronously running driving devices for instance synchronous individual motors. The arrangement may furthermore be such that when changing the delivery speed, the speed of the doffer comb is synchronously variable so that the number of strokes of the doffer comb (I-Iackerschlagzahl)one doffer comb stroke per longitudinal unit of the webremains constant. Similarly the arrangement may be such that the speed of the traversing condenser roller of the condenser mechanism will be variable synchronously with a change in the delivery speed. Advantageously, the speeds of rotation of the individual swifts are controllable independently of the speeds of the longitudinal drive shaft. If desired, the speeds of all swifts may together he controllable synchronously. According to another important feature of the invention the longitudinal drive shaft rotates with a speed of more than 400 R. P. M.

Structural arrangement Referring now to the drawing in particular, the set of cards illustrated therein comprises a card A and a card B each of which has a separate drive, as a rule an individual motor ll. This drive motor 1 directly drives the main cylinder or swift T of the respective card, if desired through an infinitely variable transmission or a transmission variable by steps so as to allow a variation of the speed of rotation of the swift. The transmissions 5 may be varied individually or may be varied commonly synchronously. Furthermore, the motor 1 is preferably drivingly connected with an infinitely variable transmission 3 through an overload clutch 2. The transmission 3 drives the shaft W arranged alongside the machine. As an alternative the drive of the longitudinal shaft W may, if so desired also be derived from the shaft of the swift T as illustrated in the drawing by the dashed line 6. In such an instance the motor 1 will not be connected with the transmission 3.

The longitudinal shaft W through bevel gears K drives the individual feeding and discharging devices as well as other devices pertaining thereto, as shown by way of example in the drawing. The individual shaft trains which lead to the respective devices comprise transmissions 5 which may be infinitely variable or may be variable by steps and which are individually adjustable. The longitudinal shaft W may include disengageable clutches to make it possible to move the individual devices away from each other for facilitating inspection, repair or the like. The synchronous movement of all rotative parts of the entire set A, B is assured due to the fact that the individual motors 1 move synchronously and that they are controlled together from a switch box 1a which may be arranged at any desired convenient place of the machine set. The variation of the delivery speed of the set of cards is effected by a synchronous adjustment of the infinitely variable transmissions 3. This may be obtained either by mechanically coupling the transmissions 3 or by equipping these transmissions, as illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawing, with synchronous control motors 4 which are controlled from an individual operating point switch box 4aand thus allow an electric remote control. In this way, the delivery speed can be conveniently and safely controlled by push button switches from any desired point. With such an arrangement it is possible to cause the set of cards according to desire or requirement to move faster or slower without being forced to stop the machine in order to exchange change gears at any points of the machine. No difiiculties whatsoever in connection with the spinning technique are encountered with the arrangement according to the present invention so that the present invention for the first time makes it possible in a very simple manner with each load, even during the running of the machine, to obtain the most favorable and highest possible spinning speed.

The transmissions 5 arranged between the longitudinal shafts W and the individual devices allow a more convenient adjustment during the standstill of the machine and when placing a new lot into the machine.

With the heretofore known driving devices, the speed of the longitudinal shaft or shafts approximately equaled the speed of the swift, which is approximately to R. P. M. With this low speed, various driving difficulties occur and due to the unfavorable torque only a limited loadability is possible. This was among others the reason why the condenser shaft requiring relatively great power could not be varied as to speed but had to be driven separately. When considerably increasing the delivery speed it was then necessary heretofore to stop the card in order to adapt the speed of the condenser shaft to the said increased delivery speed.

Fig. 2 shows an arrangement which is a slight modification of a part of Fig. 1 inasmuch as it comprises additional transmission means 5' equipped with control means 7 in form of servomotors connected to a common switch box 7a. The servomotors 7 correspond to the servomotors 4 of Fig. 1, while the switch box 7a corresponds to the switch box 4a of Fig. 1.

With the arrangement according to the present invention, synchronously moving individual motors with a speed of 1420 R. P. M. may be employed which motors in contrast to the heretofore used driving motors with speeds of 950 R. P. M. require a minimum of space, while the longitudinal shafts W may rotate with speeds from 400 to 700 R. P. M. This has considerable advantages with regard to the processing of the roving and thus represents an important feature of the present in- Vention.

When changing the delivery speed, with the arrangement according to the present invention also the speed of the doffer or doifing comb varies in such a manner that the number of doifer strokes, namely one doffer stroke per longitudinal unit of the web, remains constant. The uniformity of the web thus remains assured. The condenser comprises rollers and a rubbing device, driving connections between said longitudinal shaft and said rollers, and also driving connections between said longitudinal shaft and said rubbing device. Inasmuch as also the speed of rotation of thecondenser rollers are in an analogous manner changed synchronously with regard to the change of the delivery speed, the number of rubbings per longitudinal unit of the roving remains constant which likewise favorably influences the quality of the eventual yarn.

It is, of course, understood that the present invention is, by no means, limited to the particular embodiment shown in the drawing but also comprises any modifications within the scope of the appended claims. Thus, the invention is applicable in an analogous manner in connection with multi-sets of cards even then when the individual devices shown in the drawing by dashed lines are discarded.

What I claim is:

1. A driving arrangement for a set of cards, which includes in combination: a plurality of cards, each of said cards having feeding and discharging means and auxiliary means pertaining thereto, each of said cards also including a swift, a plurality of separate driving shafts respectively associated with said cards so that one driving shaft is arranged along each card and is drivingly connected to said feeding and discharging means and said auxiliary means, a plurality of separate driving means for said cards and respectively associated with said cards in such a manner that each card has a separate driving means, each of said driving means having two output shafts, a plurality of variable transmissions, each of said cards having one of said transmissions associated therewith and arranged for drivingly connecting the driving shaft pertaining to the respective card with one of said output shafts of the driving means pertaining to the same card, the other output shaft of each of said driving means being drivingly connected to the swift of the respective card to which the respective driving means pertains, and means for synchronously controlling said transmissions.

2. A driving arrangement according to claim 1, which includes means common to said plurality of driving means for effecting synchronous drive of said plurality of driving means.

3. A driving arrangement for a set of cards, which includes in combination: a plurality of cards, each of said cards having feeding and discharging means and auxiliary means pertaining thereto, each of said cards also including a swift, a plurality of separate driving shafts respectively associated with said cards so that one driving shaft is arranged along each card and is drivingly connected to said feeding and discharging means and said auxiliary means, a plurality of separate driving means for said cards and respectively associated with said cards in such a manner that each card has a separate driving means, each of said driving means having two output shafts, a plurality of variable transmissions, each of said cards having one of said transmissions associated therewith and arranged for drivingly connecting the driving shaft pertaining to the respective card with one output shaft of the driving means pertaining to the same card, the other output of each shaft of said driving means being drivingly connected to the swift of the respective card to which the respective driving means pertains, additional transmissions, each of said cards having one of said additional transmissions interposed between and drivingly connecting the other output shaft of the driving means 6 pertaining to the respective card with. the swift of the same card, said additional transmissions respectively being variable independently of said first mentioned transmissions, and means for synchronously controlling said first mentioned transmissions.

4. A driving arrangement according to claim 3, which include control means for synchronously controlling said additional transmissions.

5. A driving arrangement for a set: of cards, which includes in combination: a plurality of cards each of said cards having feeding and discharging means and auxiliary means pertaining thereto, each of said cards also including a swift, a plurality of separate driving shafts respectively associated with said cards so that one driving shaft is arranged along each card and is drivingly connected to said feeding and discharging means and said auxiliary means, a plurality of separate driving means for said cards and respectively associated with said cards in such a manner that each card has a separate driving means, each of said driving means having two output shafts, a plurality of variable transmissions, each of said cards having one of said transmissions associated therewith and arranged for drivingly connecting the driving shaft pertaining to the respective card with one of said output shafts of the driving means pertaining to the same card, the other output shaft of each of said driving means being drivingly connected to the swift of the respective card to which the respective driving means pertains, a plurality of sets of auxiliary variable transmissions, each card having one of said sets associated therewith, the auxiliary transmissions of each set being variable in dividually and being respectively interposed between and drivingly connected to the driving shaft of the card to which the respective auxiliary transmission pertains and to those parts of the respective card to be driven by the respective driving shaft, and means for synchronously controlling said first mentioned transmissions.

6. A driving arrangement according to claim 1, in which the separate driving shafts are arranged for rotation at a speed exceeding 400 R. P. M..

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,560,013 Varga July 10, 1951 2,574,580 McKay et al. Nov. 13, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS 255,283 Great Britain July 22, 1926 592,096 Great Britain Sept. 8, 1947 863,471 France Jan. 2, 1941 

